Traditionally the traveller has had a choice of hand-held luggage consisting of suitcases, lightweight "carry on" bags, and garment bags. Suitcases can carry an ample amount of articles, but clothing such as dresses, coats, or suits must be folded and thereby wrinkled when placed inside. The resultant package is generally heavy and cumbersome. Wheels and handles have been added to suitcases in prior inventions, but the luggage, though more mobile, does not leave a traveller's clothing looking fresh. The suitcase is not generally fit for the "business" traveller, who only needs to carry one or two days worth of clothing and would prefer to transport all his needs in a single piece of carry on luggage in order to save time otherwise spent waiting for his luggage to be unloaded from aircraft. The business traveller gains the added benefit of not risking the loss of his luggage when he is able to store all his needs in a single carry on piece of luggage.
Lightweight carry on bags do not allow a traveller to store longer articles of clothing without their being folded and, thus, wrinkled. Secondly, when lightweight carry on bags are used in conjunction with other luggage they must be carried separately adding to the traveller's burdens and causing him to have to pick up, position, and put down all his luggage between each time he is required to use his hands.
Garment bags are usually bulky and cumbersome. When carried over one's arms the articles of clothing are still subject to folding and wrinkling. Any smaller items carried in a garment bag, such as folded shirts or toiletry articles, usually fall to the bottom of the bag in a disorderly manner. Attempts to make the garment bags more like a big suitcase have resulted in a large rigid piece of luggage, which, when in conjunction with a number of other bags, only adds to the difficulties of a traveller attempting to carry all his luggage and intermittently stop and use his hands. For example, the wheeled garment bag disclosed in Lugash U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,768 provides a rigid, mobile bag capable of carrying long pieces of clothing without folding. It even provides for a hook to temporarily hold a lightweight bag, such as a brief case, but the invention disclosed still only compounds a traveller's problems when he attempts to transport the garment bag in conjunction with two or more suitcases.